1966 Dodge Dart

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im using Nason products. They are part of the Dupoint group I think. And yes my primer does use a hardener. Thats why I was wondering how much to mix. I will start with one quart and mix more if needed. as for cold, yes its cold. Today it was 22 not quite where you are but cold is cold. Other bad news is that we got a couple inches of snow today. Im away for the weekend so im hoping i can pull the car with the truck back once I get home and get these parts primed. My timing is always off! stay warm and thanks for following.
Rod
Couple inches of fluff. Sweep it off and get back to work! :poke: LOL
 
Guess Ill find out how the snow tires work on the dart! you know the township doesnt do the yard back to the shed!
 
I went out tonight and sprayed the primer on the 2 front fenders, both doors and the door hinges. I plan on putting the hinges and door jamb paint on the doors this weekend then get the car back into the shed next week when it gets warmer and the snow melts. I did find some issues as I sprayed the fenders that I added to my thread in the body section under "frustrated with inability to do body work". I also posted plenty of pics in that thread so I wont duplicate them here. Im hoping that the weather gets warmer next week so I can get the car back out to the shed and start working on it. I'll get an update this weekend after the painting is done.
Thanks for following,
Rod
 
Well, its all but 10 PM here and Im finally getting to sit down today. I went to the shed at 9:00 AM and started preparing to paint the doors and fenders. I know Im not the fastest worker when it comes to body and paint work. Well, I had to sweep and clean everything before I could paint. Then because the doors get both red and white the taping took me way to long. Im not sure I did this in the right order but I decided to do the red paint part of the door first because it would be easier to tape the red off after it was on then it would have been the white, or so I think so! Well heres the first step off progress:
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Now I had to untape the lower side and tape off the red so I can paint the jambs white.
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now its time for the clear coat,
oops, almost forgot I had to do the under hood part of the fenders and the door hinges along with an ashtray and glove box door:
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Now its time for clearcoat:
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Now that part is done and if you've been following this post you know my car needs to get back out to the shed so I can move forward however we had some snow and I can tget it out there yet. But the good news is that the temps are to go into the 40's and maybe even low 50's weds and thursday which should melt the little snow we have and I can get car back out there. Now Keith (ZKX14) has told me to sweep it off and get back to work. He has no compassion for my issues! Then today he scares the jaheebees (not sure thats a real word) out of me when after im taped up he tells me i might have the white show when the door is shut. Now his car is a early 70's duster and the weather stripping is on the door where the Early a's were on the body. Of course I hadnt seen my weatherstripping for probably 2 yeras so I wasnt sure and I had to go look at pics before I could spray in case I would have to retape. Well it ends up I should be ok as I had it but Im glad he came over and made me check because with my luck had he not mentioned it It would have been wrong. Well for Keith heres a pic of the early A weather strip.
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Keith I hope this explains it better then I was trying to explain! lol
For all you following, Keith lives a few miles away and has stopped over many times now to check on my progress and keep me moving! He has thhrown some great thoughts my way and its great to have someone like that close!
Well now I just have to hope for some warm weather at the end of the week.
As always thanks for following along. Comments and suggestions are more then welcome!
Thanks
Rod

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Im hoping that the weather gets warmer next week so I can get the car back out to the shed and start working on it.
Let me know when ready to move it. As you know, I am on night shift now, but If you do it on Sat AM or Sunday, I can probably give you a hand
 
Well with temps hitting the mid 40's today enough snow melted that I was able to get the dart back out into the shed. Now it doesnt matter if snow hits us, I've got a car and room to work!
My only progress tonight was to rebuild the door hinges and I bolted the passenger door on. I can see that aligning will be a difficult job. Not sure where to start or how to go about it so there will be lots of trial and error i'm sure. Im hoping to get the doors aligned and fenders hung in the next week or so. Then get the hood on so I can see where to cut for the hood scoop on the spare hood for when I go to the 2x4 setup. Heres the pic of the door and hinges.
Rod
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Well with temps hitting the mid 40's today enough snow melted that I was able to get the dart back out into the shed. Now it doesnt matter if snow hits us, I've got a car and room to work!
My only progress tonight was to rebuild the door hinges and I bolted the passenger door on. I can see that aligning will be a difficult job. Not sure where to start or how to go about it so there will be lots of trial and error i'm sure. Im hoping to get the doors aligned and fenders hung in the next week or so. Then get the hood on so I can see where to cut for the hood scoop on the spare hood for when I go to the 2x4 setup. Heres the pic of the door and hinges.
Rod
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What hinge kits did you use? I need to do that to mine also. You are doing a great job!
 
I'll have to look at the packet to get you a part number. I ordered them from NAPA but I think they were aftermarket.
I'll get a number tomorrow if I dont forget!
Rod
 
Hey Toolman, heres the package for the door hinge kit. Its a Dorman product, part # 38382. Comes with 4 bushings and both pins. I had to rework (drill) the lower hinge on the drivers door in order to use the bronze bushings. Its kind of a poor set up because in order to get the bushings in the one gets put in from the bottom side. That one I epoxied in place. Then the bushings are to long so I had to grind the extra off with a small sanding drum on a die grinder.
You can tell by the pic that the plastic is yellowed. Those packages were hanging on the self somewhere a long time. I should probably go order a spare kit for years down the road!
Now the question is do I have enough ability to get the doors aligned correctly!
Rod
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Spent sometime between yesterday and today and got my doors hung. I'm fairly happy with the fitment. The passenger door gave me the most problems. I finally went to Ace and bought a small bottle jack to help move the hinges up as well as jack the door around. I have bottle jacks but they are all in dads garage! Working by yourself is sometimes a challenge however I cant imagine still being friends with someone if they were helping and i had this many issues hanging the door. I can't say Im very patient and I tend to yell to much! Maybe thats why no one helps! lol
It took a while to get the hinges on and set in place, and then the door latches and strikers also gave me a fit. I wasn't sure if the door had a double click latch or a single click latch. Old Dart 66 (jerry) has given me a ton of info this week. Thanks I appreciate that.
Heres some pics of the door alignment,
Starting with the Drivers door: The first pic shows how bad the doors body edge gap lines are just on the door.

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Below is the final gapping. Im happy but I might work on the door line just a little itself. Im going to ask in the body section if anyone grinds that edge straighter or just live with it.
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And I'm really happy with the lower gap as its even all the way down.
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Now for the passenger door which took most of the weekend as the drivers door only took about an hour. Passenger side I put the door on then attempted alignment then removed the door checked the hinges put back together attempted alignment again then decided to go get a bottle jack to help move things. Finally got things close. Not as good as the drivers door but its acceptable. Heres a few pics:
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You can see in the pic below just like the drivers door how far off the door edge is from straight. Again depending on what others say will determine if I try to do anything with them.
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And lastly is the bottom gap which is off from the front to back about 1/16". Its not worth the hassle of fighting with it for the lower lip gap.
Now the plan is to get the front fenders hung this week and install the grill and bumper to see how things line up before I go any farther. If everything goes together then the real body work begins.
Heres some idea of whats ahead:
The first 2 pics below show the rear quarters that need finished. These scare me because of making the lines straight while making sure the curve in the body stays nice. Im sure I'll be asking many questions in the body section on this!
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Then theres the original body line that ran from the door back thru the rear quarter, however the replacement parts did not have this line so its going to go away. I just have to figure the best way to fill that gap. Im thinking short strand fiberglass. Again thats another question for our body friends to guide me thru.
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Thanks for following and I'll get pics of fenders as I move forward. Comments and suggestions always welcome.
Rod
 
Dang I thought I was looking at a tweaked convertible with that door gap. I had to hang one convertible upside down on the rotisserie and weld in the floorpans and torque boxes in while the car was updside down and my buddy(250lbs) and I stood on the top side to get the doors to line up when they were like that, worked too!. I got really good gaps after doing that,but I never want to have to do it that way again.
 
I finally went to Ace and bought a small bottle jack
Had to re-read that. Thought you got a small bottle of Jack at Ace. I know they sell beer at the grocery store now, but..:D.
Lookin good. If anything, gap might be too tight on back of doors. Pretty sure they were never that good from factory. Great if you can maintain that on fenders and hood, but I know I had to open some up to keep things looking even.
 
Wow, here we are in February already! Well that doesnt go well for my completion time line! I havent posted in a few weeks but not because I havent been doing anything.
Ive gotten the fenders on the car and even tho they are not perfect with body lines I think I will be happy. I put the hood on the other day to see how it was going to line up and it looks good as well.
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Oh yea, forgot to mention i bought a scoop I will need to install to the hood but I like it!
I woke up Friday night around 1 AM and couldnt sleep so I went out and made a decision on where to mount the Tach. Its been something that Ive been thinking about for some time. I had a friend make me a bracket that would allow me to mount the tach sitting just above the dash pad. But I was afraid that would get to much attention from local police since Im going to be using an antique tag. Yea I know the scoop will probably draw attention as well! lol. So after sitting in the car for about 15 minutes heres what I decided.
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Old school mount!
I can see the needle fairly well fairly well from about 4k up and 3k down. I lose it for just a little bit but it looks better there then standing out above the dash pad.
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oh and I finally put the glove box back together and back in the car as well.
With the hood on I found out that my gas cylinders dont have enough pressure to keep the hood up by themselves. They are fine to help lift the hood so I bought a hood prop and I guess I will look for a heavier set of cylinders. I also had to make some clearance for the cylinder pivot at the top because they would touch where the cowl and firewall are welded together. No pics of that I will need to take some. Now some of you may have seen I have been posting about the headlight bezels, grill and other anodized pieces. (got some great help from many members and especially 66Dvert, Thanks) I had the anodizing removed and I am now working on the bezels. Here is the drivers side sanded and straightened so far. Ive only done the first grit sanding. I used 220 wet but now have to follow up with 400, 1000, 1500, 2000 and then polish with buffing compound. I have a pretty comfortable setup for this.
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Here I am hard at work! The small white bucket is a 2 gallon and the bezel fits perfect on the top making holding the bezel fairly easy while I sand. The 5 gal bucket is my rinse bucket so I can see what its looking like.
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I did a practice bezel first to see what was going to happen because this type of work is all new to me. Heres my practice bezel, the one on the top is the one im working with:
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Heres after about 1/2 hour of tapping and re shaping then another 1/2 hour of sanding and tapping as I worked it.
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I have 8 sets of these so now I know I can rework them and sell them to recoop some money to go forward with this build! lol
Heres my drivers side that I will be using, it was fairly straight and in pretty good shape when I bought it. (one of the 9 sets I bought!)
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Well thats about it for now. I plan on going out again tonight and finishing the drivers side and maybe starting on the passenger side. Oh, almost forgot to mention that if your doing this you should probably check fitment on the fender as you go to be sure its flat and matches the front of your fender.
As always thanks for following and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated.
Rod
 
Heres just a quick update on my first headlight bezel. I finished all the sanding tonight. So here are the pics step by step starting with the bezels just out of anodizing removal so you can see the changes. I will still need to polish once I have the other items done.
unworked bezel
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next is all steps with the paper showing which grit was used. The first one is the 220 grit.
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here are the tools I made to straighten some of the areas of the bezels.
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Rod
 
Started working on the passenger side bezel yesterday. I found once I started sanding the bezel, that this one had a crease at the top.
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It is the one on the left in the pic above. I tried to tap it out and clean it up but I ended up sanding thru the bezel.
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So I had those aluminum rods from Harbor Freight and I had been told they work great so after thinking about it all night last night I headed for the shed this morning to see what might happen. I first took one of my extra trims and welded some on it to see if I could get it hot enough with a small propane torch. Then I attacked the good bezel. Filled both the front and back side with the repair rod.
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Then I took it to the belt sander and cleaned it up trying not to have the belt hit the bezel anywhere else.
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From here I hit it with the small air grinder and then went to work trying to blend it in as I sanded the bezel to prepare it for the buffing procedure. Im very happy with the outcome except for the brightness of the new material. Not sure how to work with that and if it will blend in better once the rest of the bezel is buffed out.
Here are pics of the bezel both sanded with grinder then completed with wet sanding without buffing.
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I was really surprised at how hard the fill material is. Much harder then the factory aluminum!
Now onto the hood trim then the grill and trunk plate. Then buffing!
Thanks for following.
Rod
 
Started working on the passenger side bezel yesterday. I found once I started sanding the bezel, that this one had a crease at the top.
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It is the one on the left in the pic above. I tried to tap it out and clean it up but I ended up sanding thru the bezel.
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So I had those aluminum rods from Harbor Freight and I had been told they work great so after thinking about it all night last night I headed for the shed this morning to see what might happen. I first took one of my extra trims and welded some on it to see if I could get it hot enough with a small propane torch. Then I attacked the good bezel. Filled both the front and back side with the repair rod.
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Then I took it to the belt sander and cleaned it up trying not to have the belt hit the bezel anywhere else.
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From here I hit it with the small air grinder and then went to work trying to blend it in as I sanded the bezel to prepare it for the buffing procedure. Im very happy with the outcome except for the brightness of the new material. Not sure how to work with that and if it will blend in better once the rest of the bezel is buffed out.
Here are pics of the bezel both sanded with grinder then completed with wet sanding without buffing.
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I was really surprised at how hard the fill material is. Much harder then the factory aluminum!
Now onto the hood trim then the grill and trunk plate. Then buffing!
Thanks for following.
Rod
Nicely done!
 
You are doing an amazing job Rod. I am still working on the trunk lid on mine now getting all the rust out of it and making some edge plates. Mine is just like yours, white outside and red inside..
 
Its a very slow process. I spent the night sanding and straightening the front hood trim. I was very careful not to sand thru any seams since Im not sure how the repair material will match once buffed. Been getting a lot of good advice from 66Dvert. He told me his matched up ok once buffed so Im hoping for the same result. But first I have the grill and trunk plate to finish before I do any buffing. That way I can clean up the shed and I will be working on the buffing only. Less Mess!
Im hoping all of this will be completed by the end of the month.
Thanks Rod
 
It is a very slow process. I have been working on mine since Nov 2016 on and off doing body work and collecting as many parts that I can get. Still have a lot to do before sending the car to paint. I only have a small garage (live in a Condo) and and do not have a lot of space. Love the car and can not wait to see it on the road again.
 
Finally got out this weekend and got something done on the car. Wasn't much but moving forward again. I hung both fenders onto the car. I wish the gap were better then what they are but I can except them where they are at. As for the sealer between the fender and engine compartment I went with the black dumb-dumb i got from NAPA. I cut the strips down to be about 3/8" wide and it made a nice seal. Heres some pics of this weekends progress.
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Next I thought I would wire the tach up and when I went to get my schematic I made I found I forget where I put it. That might be a problem! This getting old and not remembering is starting to catch up with me. Well I know I didnt throw it out so I will find it somewhere, and hopefully soon!
Well thats it for tonight but I plan on doing at least 2 nights of work this week.
I'll keep you posted.
Rod
 
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